Guild Wars 2

If you are on a map and were told it would be closing in an hour, other than joining a raid and using ‘join’, are other players assigned to maps designated to be closing when they travel to the map, or are they redirected to maps that are healthy enough to remain open?

The scenario I’m thinking of is logging in an alt to do a world boss. I’m about 20 min early on this boss, but usually just login and go read teh intratubes for a bit. Today I logged in and within a few minutes, it told me the map was closing. I ran out to where the boss would spawn, 2 other people standing there. There was no WB train advertised, or any other ‘central tyria’ raid.

So do I leave that map, because it won’t be letting new people in it anyways (unless some super popular person makes a raid on that IP and gets everyone to join him/her there), or should I stay on that one, because it will repopulate, or take the free ride, assuming all the population will go there?

FWIW, I took the ride, and like no one is here, and I have a bad feeling I chose poorly.

If it says the copy of the map you’re on is closing soon then the game will not place players who enter the map into that copy automatically.

However they can enter by joining a party or squad (what you call a raid) with someone on that map and using the “Join in [map name]” option. If enough people do that it’s possible the game may ‘decide’ not to close the map after all, but it’s rare that happens.

The problem with things like world bosses is the game tries to avoid completely full maps as well (so that there’s space for people to join their friends). So if lots of people start going to the same map at around the same time (as they do when a world boss is starting soon) it won’t put them all into the same copy of the map until it’s full and then start a new one – it will create 4 or 5 new copies (plus using the one/s that already existed) and spread players evenly between them, expecting that they’ll stay in those copies for a while and it can continue to put new arrivals into them.

Then players use the LFG tool to move themselves into 1 or 2 of those maps (the ones with commanders organising the event) and the game suddenly goes from having 6 copies of the map with roughly equal population to having 2 which are nearly full and 4 which are nearly empty. So it switches from filling the maps evenly to moving people out of the empty ones so they can be closed down. But it can’t put them into the nearly full maps because they’re nearly full and still filling up on their own – instead it puts players from 3 nearly empty maps into the 4th nearly empty map to try and make one with a medium population.

But players still don’t want to be in there so they continue to use the LFG tool to move themselves into the nearly full maps, until they’re completely full and anyone else who arrives is out of luck.

The result of this is you shouldn’t ever rely on the game to drop you into an organised, populated map automatically. It can happen but there is no guarantee and when lots of people are coming for the event it’s highly unlikely because it’s the opposite of what the game is trying to do it.

Instead you should always use the LFG tool to find an organised map, and if none are advertised put up your own advert stating that you need more people. (Advertising in LFG doesn’t mean you’re saying you will command throughout the event – just that you’re offering a way for people to move to a map that isn’t completely dead.)

Danikat.8537:

If it says the copy of the map you’re on is closing soon then the game will not place players who enter the map into that copy automatically.

That sounds reasonable, but I’m not sure it’s true (anymore).

In the last few months (but never before LS3 started) I’ve had several instances where I had the “this map is closing soon” notice displayed from the moment the loading screen went away, and I joined those map instances simply by waypointing into them. Granted, it could still be just an unfortunate timing issue, but it’s happened frequently enough that I’m doubtful.

Gudy.3607:

Danikat.8537:

If it says the copy of the map you’re on is closing soon then the game will not place players who enter the map into that copy automatically.

That sounds reasonable, but I’m not sure it’s true (anymore).

In the last few months (but never before LS3 started) I’ve had several instances where I had the “this map is closing soon” notice displayed from the moment the loading screen went away, and I joined those map instances simply by waypointing into them. Granted, it could still be just an unfortunate timing issue, but it’s happened frequently enough that I’m doubtful.

This often happens during HoT meta events, world bosses, etc. You waypoint in to the map while other players are using LFG to join a squad that is rapidly filling a different map. The players who were on the instance you’re zoning into transfer themselves to the LFG map instead. At that point the map you just zoned into becomes depleted and the megaserver system sends out the map closing dialogue.

This can even happen repeatedly. You zone in, accept the map closing dialogue, then end up on another map that is being depleted as players jump to a meta map. So that map ends up closing too!

It’s a little confusing when you don’t know what’s happening. But the only solution available is to familiarize yourself with LFG and event times. If you’re looking to get in on world bosses, etc., don’t just show up on a map 20 minutes ahead of time. Use LFG so you end up on a map that is organizing for the event you want. Otherwise you run the risk of ending up on a depleted map even though you showed up early.

Thanks everyone.

On bigger things like the AB meta, Teq, Shad (though there is often no taxi for him when I play), DS, I always look for raids/taxis.

I think this was the first time I ever showed up for a little WB and, albeit early, and it told me the map was closing, but I saw a few people there waiting. Wasn’t clear if it made sense to just wait, because the map might fill up again, or go ahead and go. Didn’t help that I was the only person in the new map until just a few minutes before it started, but everyone ended up flooding in as they do.

Just made me curious as to whether it actually marked a map to not accept new people, or if it would ‘change it’s mind’ and start letting people in.